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Graham first Congress member to be tenant in City Hall

Courtney Thomas, staff assistant in U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham's local Tallahassee City Hall office peruses the newspaper for relevant clips to share with the Congresswoman and her team. Graham is first U.S. Congress member to have an office in City Hall.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Demcorat)

Next month, the Tallahassee City Hall celebrates its 32nd anniversary. Last month, it celebrated a first:

It became home to a U.S. Representative.

Recently elected Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Fla., opened her district office in City Hall on Jan. 6. On Jan. 24, she held her ceremonial swearing in at City Hall, three weeks after her official investiture in Washington D.C.

Tallahassee has had four city halls in its 191-year history; the current one at 300 S. Adams St., opened March 28, 1983. To the best of anyone's knowledge, it's the first time any of Tallahassee's city halls has housed the office of a member of Congress.

Former U.S. Representative Allen Boyd had an office in the Leon County Courthouse from 1997 to 2004. Graham's predecessor, Steve Southerland, had his Tallahassee district office in the Brentwood Office Complex at 3116 Capital Circle NE. Southerland also had a district office in the Bay County Government Center, in Panama City; Graham has continued operation of that Panama City office.

Graham's offices are on the first floor of City Hall, to the left (south) of the front entrance. The suite has three offices, cubicles, meeting space and 1,700 square feet. Graham is paying the city $18,000 a year on a two-year lease.

Graham's district office has five full- and one part-time employees.

"I believe it's the first time we've leased space to (any outside agency)." said Cynthia Barber, city director of environmental policy, energy resources and facilities management. "We've never been asked, we've never considered it. In this case, we thought there were some mutual benefits to have (Graham's office) located in City Hall."

Matt Harringer, Graham's communications director, said the Congresswoman sought the arrangement to give her a visible location in Tallahassee. A U.S. Representative's district office handles a variety of constituent services, from resolving veterans issues to being a liaison with federal agencies to military academy appointments to summer internships. Graham, a Tallahassee resident who owns a home in SouthWood, also plans frequent workdays in the district.

"Constituent services are a top priority for me. Our district offices were open and ready to help on day one," Graham said in a statement. "We located our Leon County office in Tallahassee's City Hall to ensure it was easy to find and accessible for our constituents."

City Hall houses about 300 city employees. Graham's offices were used formerly by Barber's facilities management division; those employees have now moved to offices on the fourth floor by Barber's office. That fourth floor space was freed up, when traffic engineering moved in 2013 to the new consolidated dispatch center by Tom Brown Park.

Though the city has numerous leases of small parcels of land or right of way, for such things as cellphone towers and sidewalk cafes, it has only two major rental properties. As part of the 1989 agreement that attracted the company to Tallahassee, defense contractor General Dynamics rents its plant on Commonwealth Boulevard from the city ($550,000 a year). And the city leases a building it formerly used to former State Sen. Al Lawson's insurance company at 400 N. Adams St. ($40,000 annually).

"The city is not in the business of leasing office space," said Mark Beaudoin, city real estate administrator. "This was an opportunity to get our local representative in there and she wanted a visible place. So we worked it out, we pick up a little revenue and it was a win-win for everybody."